I had a difficult time getting into the story. Daphne du Maurier has long been a favorite author of mine, but The Loving Spirit is not one of her better books. It's about a woman who becomes unusually close to one of her sons. She loves the sea, and wishes she had been born a man so she could sail. The story is set in the late 1800's in England. She passes her love of the sea onto her son, and he in turn lives his life devoted to her. The book spans several generations, and covers many branches of the family tree. Keeping the characters straight was difficult at times. The story ends in the 1920's with the granddaughter, and her love of the sea.
Janet Coombe is a victim of her time and gender. She longs to know the wildness and freedom of the sea-faring life, but in Cornwall of the early 1800s, all that Janet may do is marry and raise a family. She ends up marrying her cousin, a staid ship-builder and raising six children with him. Janet is overjoyed when her boy Joseph, fulfills her secret dreams and becomes a sailor, eventually captaining his own ship - a ship built by his brothers - named the Janet Coombe. Through the trials, tribulations and tragedies which strike her family, Janet holds on to her lively and loving spirit and passes that on to the later generations. I really enjoyed this book, Daphne du Maurier's debut novel. I give it an A+!
This book launched Du Maurier's fabled career as a storyteller. Somewat romantic it tells the history of the Coomb family of seafarers and shipbuilders. The matriarch, Janet, is a reckless and wild; her spirit passing to the figurehead of her sons shipthe Janet Coomb, Plym. It is also traced though four generations of progeny. "Loving Spirit" yes; "Lively" definately!
